Worried About Your Retirement?

My great-grandparents didn’t think much about their retirement. Neither did yours. Chances are they didn’t have one.

The whole idea of retirement is fairly new (except for the very rich, of course, who always lived a life of retirement). Before the Social Security Act of 1935, most people worked till they were no longer physically capable of doing so, then got by on savings, help from family members, or perhaps a pension, which, given the life expectancy at the time—about 60 years old on average—usually sufficed for any remaining years.

Social Security provided the guarantee of an insured income for the post-work years of life, and then came all the advances in healthcare that have extended our lifespan, and what do you have? A marketing opportunity for the producers of financial services—the newly minted phenomenon of “retirement planning.”

That’s what’s behind all those richly filmed, vibrantly scored, emotion-stirring, heart-pounding commercials for retirement funds. You know the ones I mean: a fit, good-looking couple in their fifties is flying off to some spectacular lake in a part of Alaska reachable only by private bush plane—he fishes, she photographs—as the husband announces that “when we retire, we’ll take trips like this all the time.” Or an equally fit, equally good-looking couple in their sixties is on the tee of some spectacular golf course in a part of the Caribbean reachable only by private yacht—they both golf—as they exchange a glance that tells us that once this hole is played, they’ll be off to the condo for some passionate afternoon love-making.

It’s a whole new fantasy: in retirement, we’ll live even better than we do now! We’ll be better-looking! We’ll fly to exotic destinations! We’ll have so much leisure and fitness that we’ll be making love with the vigor and excitement of 20-year-olds!

Moral? Do whatever it takes to grab the money bonanza now so we can really live later!

In a marketing minute, the retirement income once seen as a blessing for working families has become yet another arena of money madness. The guarantee that once blunted our anxiety about getting by in the last years of life has now become fertile territory for all kinds of new stress: how much money will I need to reach this golden lifestyle I’ve seen only in ads? how and where will I get that kind of money? Better work harder/sacrifice more/defer pleasure today/make the killer investment so I can make the grade.

But when a fantasy about tomorrow makes your life today seem worthless by comparison, and when you find yourself making one sacrifice after another to achieve that fantasy, it’s time to re-think the retirement game.

What kind of retirement do you really want? (By the way, not one of my wealthy clients ever “retires;” they all just change the shape of their engagement with life, although, granted, they have the wherewithal to do that.) More to the point: what kind of life today do you want?

I’m reminded of the old story about the wealthy ship owner who returns to the little fishing village where he was born to live out his golden years. One day on the beach, he sees a young man lazily fishing, and he gives him a lecture. “Why, when I was your age, I had ambition and enterprise. I worked hard, bought a boat, fished round the clock, bought another boat, then another. Today, I am the owner of a fleet of ships, with enough money to do exactly what I want.”

“And what is that?” the lazy young man asks.

“To come back here and fish”—the ship owner gulps—“just like you.”

Moral: if you want to kick back and fish, think about doing it today—and consider how much of a fleet you really need to own first.